It’s nice that Hungenberg Produce in Colorado has spent $1 million upgrading it’s food safety prevention, and they are representative of many of the farmers I know, but how can they be rewarded by consumers for their food safety efforts? How can I differentiate their carrots from other carrots at retail?

The Greeley Tribune reports that Mike and Paul Hungenberg, who represent the fourth generation to spearhead operations at Hungenberg Produce, invested about $1 million this past year to improve the company’s food safety and sanitation measures at its carrot-packing shed north of Greeley on Weld County Road 39.

The expensive upgrades were not required by any new federal or state regulations — the Hungenbergs said they’re just not willing to leave anything to chance.

“Food safety is something we’re always looking at … it’s a very important issue,” said Mike Hungenberg, whose company grows 1,000 acres of carrots and about 2,000 acres of other vegetables, while also packaging and shipping out about 300 tons of carrots daily during the five-month carrot season. The produce goes to Walmart, King Soopers, Kroger, Safeway and Sprouts stores, and can be found across the U.S. “We had been looking at making some upgrades … and with last year’s (listeria-in-cantaloupe) outbreak, the writing was on the wall. It was time.

“We wanted to be proactive.”

Mike Hungenberg said his company brought in a representative from McCarthy Integrated Systems in California — one of the industry’s foremost experts in food safety equipment, as Hungenberg described.

After getting pointers from that consultant, Mike designed the upgrades and, with the help of his workers, installed the new food-safety equipment this past winter.

Hungenberg Produce now has automated sprayers that sanitize and disinfect conveyor belts and other equipment throughout the day — not just at the end of the day.